LOS ALAMITOS, CA — The Advanced Placement Psychology class at Los Alamitos High School is very popular among upperclassmen and has been available at Los Al for almost twelve years. As the time for students to select their courses for next year, many students are considering AP Psych as an elective, but they are uncertain about what exactly the class entails. 

“I think that this class is really interesting and fun. I would definitely recommend that other students take it,” said Siena Laws, a Los Al sophomore.

AP Psych covers a variety of topics ranging from the biology of behavior to the study of emotions. There are nine units overall that are spread, like a typical AP class, from the beginning of the school year to the AP exams in May. Currently, the class is studying personality and stress.

“AP Psych covers so many different topics, and focuses on so many different aspects of our behavior and our thinking and so forth. So it’s almost like everything we do outside of the classroom is related to the material that we talked about in class,” said Mr. Whitcomb, who has taught AP Psych for eight years.

Teachers have reported that one of the most popular units among students is clinical psychology. This unit covers the diagnosis and study of psychological disorders and their treatments. 

“We could all be dealing with [these disorders] at some point, and I think it’s important to talk about the symptoms or the causes to really understand them and to realize that there are treatments,” explained Ms. Kibtya, who has taught the class for five years.

The class does not include a lot of group work and is primarily lecture-based. However, there are some class discussions and projects spread out throughout the year. The latest project in Ms. Kibtya’s class was analyzing the personalities of characters from the movie “Mean Girls.”

The class is very popular among juniors and seniors and is considered to be one of the more “easy” and “straightforward” AP classes. Ms. Kibtya reported that students typically spend about one hour a night on homework for her class, which usually consists of reading textbook chapters or completing reading guides.

“I personally don’t find the class’s material particularly hard, but you definitely need to pace yourself. There are definitely a lot of writing assignments that can take up a lot of time,” Laws said. 

Several students who have taken the class have developed an interest in psychology as a career. For those who are interested in that field of study, this class is considered to be a good step to discovering if they enjoy it.

“Many kids at the end of the year will say something like, ‘I’m going to change my major to psychology.’ I even just had one of my kids graduate from UC Santa Barbara studying neuropsychology,” Ms. Kibtya added.